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5 facts about booming bourbon

A record 571,701 people visited the Kentucky Bourbon Trail tour of eight distilleries last year — a 12 percent increase from 2012. An additional 61,698 traveled to the Kentucky Bourbon Trail Craft Tour in its first full year of existence, for a total of 633,399 distillery guests statewide.

The growth of Bourbonism throughout Kentucky is providing economic benefits.

1. A record 571,701 people visited the Kentucky Bourbon Trail tour of eight distilleries last year — a 12 percent increase from 2012. An additional 61,698 traveled to the Kentucky Bourbon Trail Craft Tour in its first full year of existence, for a total of 633,399 distillery guests statewide.

2. Louisville's Bourbon & Food Work Group Report said the bourbon industry in the city represents 4,200 jobs, $263 million in payroll, $32 million in tax revenue and $50 million in capital projects in 2012.

3. Bourbon and Tennessee whiskey exports were a record $1.06 billion last year, more than double their total a decade earlier.

4. The 5,294,988 bourbon barrels aging in Kentucky warehouses at the end of last year were the most since 1977. That's more than one barrel per person for the nearly 4.4 million estimated people of Kentucky.

5. Kentucky producers filled more than 1.2 million barrels of bourbon last year, the most since 1970. Production increased 20 percent from 2012 to 2013. Last year's production is more than double the 485,020 barrels in 1999.